Tribune Co. to buy 19 local TV stations

7/1/13 8:03 AM EDT

The Tribune Company may be looking to offload its newspaper holdings, but it is investing heavily in local television.

On Monday, Tribune announced that it will buy 19 local television stations. The purchase will give Tribune a total of 42 local stations, plus the WGN America channel, making it the nation’s biggest commercial TV station owner. The total cost of the new purchase is $2.73 billion.

Tribune has been courting potential buyers of its newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun. Interested parties are reported to include both the conservative Koch brothers and the Los Angeles-based philanthropist Eli Broad.